The Ghost House
by Angel58
Summary: Ghosts, are they non-fiction or fantasy, you decide.


Anna knew from the start that things weren't right. She had sensed it. She had dreams and visions that had come true and she sensed things were wrong. This time it was for real. Her mum just has to believe her. Her mum called it her 'Imaginative sense' because she thought Anna sometimes allowed her imagination to run away with her.  
  
Anna and her family had just moved to a rickety old house. Everything about it unnerved her. It sent shivers down her spine, whenever she walked around. The general appearance of the house wasn't that bad. The garden and the paintwork just needed some attention. However, it was isolated.in the middle of nowhere. The house was built on a slope and on the other side of a stream was a wood.  
  
It was a very old fashioned house with wooden logs for the fire instead of an electric, which Anna was used to. She was not at home there, as she was used to city life and disliked the countryside. She was an only child and lived with her parents.  
  
She didn't have many friends as they all thought she was mad and didn't believe that she could 'sense' things. This made Anna lonely and sad but she valued her privacy. One day, she thought, things might change and they might believe her, but that was probably a long way off, if at all.  
  
A couple of days later, when her parents had finally settled down, Anna decided to go and explore. It was a frosty morning, but not cold enough for snow. Anna liked frosty mornings and to go exploring seemed perfect.  
  
After she had mumbled her way through her mother's warnings about her catching a cold and wrapping up warm, she was now standing on the crumbled frosty step. With the icy cold wind blowing in her face and the crunch crunch of the leaves under her feet, she set out across the lawn into the wood.  
  
The wood was beautiful with rows upon rows of trees, all lined up, yet looking very frail. Anna didn't know what to make of it all. She expected there to be creatures and plant growth in the wood but there was none. She turned round to go home, feeling disappointed at not discovering anything interesting, when she heard a faint rustle coming from a pile of leaves in one corner of the wood.  
  
She froze, unable to breathe. Nothing happened. She moved her head to look around and the noise came again. She felt frightened and started to run back to the house. As she was running, the wind howled and whispered around her and a whispered voice stretched out to her, as if trying to tell her something. Anna didn't want to listen, so she slammed the door once inside the house.  
  
The noise of the door echoed through the house. Her mother came to see who or what it was. She saw Anna leaning against the door panting and looking as white as a ghost. "You look as though you've seen a ghost," he mum joked. It didn't seem very funny at the time and as she slowly crept away from the door, he mother followed with a worried expression on her face. Anna sat down heavily in an old pine chair whilst he mother studied her expression carefully.  
  
Anna didn't know what to say. In the end she didn't have to say anything, as her mother spoke first. "Why were you by the door?" Wrapped up in her own thoughts, Anna didn't answer at first. What Anna had witnessed, she knew her mother would dismiss as her imagination getting the better of her. She knew that it was no ordinary wind and this was no ordinary place. Anna soon discovered that she should have said something, right there, right then.  
  
For the moment they both sat in silence until Anna mumbled her reply and stomped upstairs to her room. She tried to sleep but couldn't. Every time she woke up she kept thinking about her experience. When she finally managed to sleep she was woken up by a gust of wind that rattled her window. As she got up to shut the window she heard a whispered voice that called out to her but it was so quiet she couldn't make out the words, if there were words at all. The whispers faded away and grew louder as she closed the window with a bang.  
  
She was more frightened than ever. She vowed to tell he mother everything in the morning.  
  
She woke with a start as streams of light filtered through the window. She must have slept a while, as it was morning. She hoped that she would have forgotten what had happened the night before but it all came flooding back to haunt her. She shivered and went downstairs.  
  
It was surprisingly warm outside and the colourful leaves of autumn rested on the ground. This entranced her, as she stared out of the window when her parents unexpectedly announced that they intended on redecorating her room. Anna's mouth fell open. But her response had nothing to do with what her parents had just said.  
  
Anna saw a small pale girl outside the window staring back at her. She looked about five years old with wavy blond hair. The realization had kicked in when Anna knew that there was no one else on this side of the slope but them. Realizing that Anna was not gazing at them but at something behind them, her parents turned round and looked out of the window. By then the girl had disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.  
  
Anna's parents, unsure of what had startled Anna, tried to talk to her but Anna wasn't interested. She was wrapped up in her own thoughts. She only took in what she wanted to hear; the fact that she would have to move into the attic whilst her room was being redecorated. This troubled Anna; as if the house wasn't creepy enough without having to sleep in any attic.  
  
Surprisingly the first few nights in the attic, Anna slept without a hint of unrest. But one night Anna woke with a start to find her window was wide open. As she moved to close it, the, the rocking horse sitting in the corner of the attic moved and creaked. She froze as the rocking horse rocked; forward and backward, forward and backward. A sudden gust of wind closed the window and there she was: the young girl of about five with wavy blond hair whom Anna had seen earlier in the week. The girl was very pale and very real. Yet as suddenly as she had appeared, again she disappeared.  
  
Anna couldn't sleep that night as she tossed and turned. Finally when morning came she was relieved to see her cheerful parents as they had nearly finished decorating her room. Anna decided to write down what she saw and heard. Again, she vowed to tell her parents everything when it was all over but though frightened she wanted to know more.  
  
She was pondering on this when she came across an old box in the corner of the attic. It contained old diaries, some dating as far back as the 1800's. She didn't think anyone would mind if she glanced at them. She was careful not to rip any pages, as some were very old and delicate.  
  
As she skimmed through them she found accounts about a girl called Lucy. She lived around the beginning of the 1880's and she lived in the house in which Anna was now living. Yet after a couple of years, there was no further mention of Lucy, just accounts. As Anna read on through the diaries of later residents she noticed that they all mentioned seeing a girl of about five with wavy blond hair.  
  
She sifted through the contents of the box and came across a death certificate dating back to 1805. It read: 'Cause of Death: - Suffocation Date if Death: - 1805 Time of Death: - uncertain' Any ordinary person would have stopped right there and wanted to have nothing to do with it but Anna was no ordinary person and she was curious, so she read on: 'Name: - Lucy Montgomery Age: - 5'  
  
As Anna read the last part a gust of wind blew it out of her hands and the girl stood crying before her. Anna stared in disbelief at the girl in front of her. She never believed in ghosts before now, but having seen the death certificate and matching it to this 'thing' she saw it must have been a ghost.  
  
Once again Lucy disappeared with as a gust of wind blew her away but that was the last time Anna saw of her. A few days later Anna found Lucy's grave as she sauntered through the graveyard nearby where she lived. The gravestone read; 'Lucy Montgomery Born 1800 Died 1805 In memory of our loving daughter Lucy, may she rest in peace.' Anna laid some flowers over the grave and hoped Lucy was at peace. 


End file.
